The last weekend in February

Progress feels slow, but there is lots of lugging about. John and Sue were down this weekend, so extra help for both me and Sarah. Plans went out the window when, after taking the sleeping bags from on top of the wardrobe, I discovered a very extensive mould patch on the roof (of the 'new' house). The ceilings are not flat here, in order to get extra height, the ceilings are raised in to the attic space. This means there is very little room up there. The damp patch was at the furthest point from the hatch and it was clear noone had been up there for 30 years (except the mice and spiders). It was like an indiana jones film - shuffling along using two thin planks for support being attacked by all manner of nasties.

When I go to the end, the felt was badly damaged in two places. Too big for mice - it must have been birds, but I couldn't see where they had got in. It took a further two 'shuffles' with various tools, replacement felt and wood braces to get the job finished. The plaster in the roof had to be cut out as it was losing structure and had really bad mould. There is a square of ply up there for the time being.

Whilst I was doing that, John was clearing the rubble and dust from bedroom 2 (the dodgy chimney stack). We also both tackled the downstairs back room. Here we removed the wood paneling and all the plaster (which was shot). We also managed to get the carpet out to see the floor. Luckily John did not say his joke out loud as we heaved the rolled up carpet into the recycling hopper (she didn't seem to be this heavy before lunch!).

So, to the pics. Not a very clear one first due to all the dust, but you can see the cleared back room...

Although the plaster was damp in a number of places, the walls seemed dry. There was a lot of concrete render on the insides which caused problems with damp. We took off the ceiling and found some very interesting beams - basically each was half a tree which had been crudely cut. We will have to find a way of keeping these exposed in the final job.

Another image showing the beams (which need a but of tidying up)...

Here you can see the exposed window. I may convert this to a door to the new sun room...

And looking back to the main room - we will probably be keeping all these walls exposed.

The next picture is the same doorway, but from the oposite direction. I cleared off some of the plaster and render too see what it looked like. Again, the walls look really nice so we may end up leaving them exposed. This area was completely covered in a concrete render and finishing plaster, then vinyl wallpaper. It is no wonder there were damp problems.

I finally removed all the debris from the main chimney. It is a monster! You can just see a small square of sky right at the top.

Finally, some of the plaster was loose on the stairs, so I gave it a pull to have a look. It seems that there used to be a door - the wall section on the left is bordered by a block in-fill section. But, this is still very old as it was covered in the original lime plaster. The wood lintel has lost all structure due to worm and will have to be replaced no matter what.

And finally, finally, look at all the rubble that John shifted - this room was full. Two trips to recycling and it is all gone! Well done John.

I get my SDS chisel tomorrow - no more aching elbows weilding a hammer and chisel. Hurrah!!